


Fae by Night (Dance the Starlight Stage)

by ModernArt2012



Series: You remind me of (Home) and other assorted works [6]
Category: Naruto
Genre: 12am Prompt: Masquerade, Coda/ Slightly Future, Dancing, Gen, Rules of Faerie, Sumigakure Halloween Event 2017, Underhill - Freeform, Warning for mention of torture, fae
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-01-31 19:19:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12688581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ModernArt2012/pseuds/ModernArt2012
Summary: Coda to a Distant Places (All These Things I've Done). Same universe as YRMo(H), but an interaction that takes place further in the future than DP(ATTID).





	Fae by Night (Dance the Starlight Stage)

**Author's Note:**

> You also need to know the rules of Faerie to understand certain things about this fic, but again, those are going to be in the to be posted in DP(ATTID)
> 
> Updated 3/3/18: Warning for single sentence mention of torture. If you wish to skip this, go from "...hurting her blood kin" to the next paragraph. This is Fae-typical, technically, but .... /shrug.

It is strange to realize certain rules don't apply to you when you're not precisely what you always thought you were. There are _things_ he has no name for, no scope to even recognize, bowing to him as he passes into Underhill, skittering out of the way and murmuring obsequious greetings. Any one else would be cowering inside, reciting the rules drilled into them over and over again in their heads, trying to get out alive.

 

A pale hand touches his briefly, and he catches the sly glance of golden eyes, the subtle twitch of a mouth corner. Ah. Yes. “Dearheart. Do stop thinking. It's not everyday I get to go Underhill under the protection of their Fair Lady and I'd like to enjoy myself.” Still, their hands intertwine like two halves made whole, a statement and a reassurance both.

 

Ah, his companion is shrewd. Sakumo wishes he could run his hands over the dramatic sweep of his partner’s cheeks, cup Orochimaru’s face and know that of all the dangerous things around them he has perhaps the most dangerous bar none in the cradle of his palm. But Sakumo had already been swatted at once tonight over nearly upending the carefully applied domino on Orochimaru’s face, for the one magically stuck to his own. Still.

 

It’s easy enough to lift their joined hands and brush a kiss over Orochimaru’s knuckles, “Whatever you wish, Gorgeous.”

 

A quickly snuffed snort, inelegant in stark contrast to the velvety robes draped elegantly over Orochimaru’s lithe form. “That one - that one is a definite no. Try again.”

 

He smiles, eyes crinkling like they hadn’t for so long. “Yes Dear.” Instead of waiting for the fond reprimand, he pushes past the hanging moss and leads them into the Fair Lady’s Court proper.  It’s a mad whirl of color, scent, smell, overwhelming in the way that his blood _sings_ , his ears prick, and his teeth sharpen in response. It feels like coming home, but a home Sakumo has never known to miss, a home that would have eaten him alive had he known it before his majority. He stumbles as his son glomps into him, nearly taking down Orochimaru with them.

 

“Wolfling.” That tone is unmistakable, a confluence of contradictions. Cold, yet warm, stately and precise and yet, casual and loose with affection. To this day, Sakumo has no idea if the Fair Lady means him or his son, or just lumps them both together until Kakashi finishes fully Manifesting. The half Manifest of wolf teeth apparently wasn't the sum total of it; with the onset of human puberty came wild fluctuations in magic, among other changes, that Sakumo had to admit he wasn't equipped to handle after the first accidental fire tornado. At least Underhill there were enough people who had mastered Unraveling to help mitigate any mishap, plus train Kakashi with their centuries of experience in combat and magic. A bitter pill to swallow nonetheless, but Kakashi wasn't interested in letting himself accidentally hurt anyone.

 

“Lady,” Sakumo covers his bases and bows deeply. He’s treated to the sense-sound of tinkling wind chimes that passes as the Fair Lady’s laugh, the way it slowly coils around him and soothes.

 

“Sakumo, my child. I am terribly happy that you came.” Her unnaturally cold hands lift his head before touching their foreheads together in greeting, inhaling deeply. The Fair Lady is terrifyingly beautiful, but he can see where he got bits a pieces of his looks, places where he and his son both originated from in her face. A wonder, after how many hours of daydreaming, thinking this person was dead for years. “And you brought your consort. Be welcome, Snake-souled Orochimaru, kin of my kin.” She touches her forehead to his as well, subtly rubbing her wrists against his neck, making him smell a little more like the _wild-sunlight-sprint_ that Sakumo knows marks him and Kakashi as blood-related, marks the Fair Lady too.  

 

Orochimaru’s face blanks faster than anyone not looking for it would catch, before schooling itself into a semblance of Tsunade-social. “By your grace, Lady, so mote it be.” It’s as close as either of them can figure towards a ‘thank you’ here in the Underhill. She smiles, and it is blinding, before offering Orochimaru her arm. There is nothing to do but accept and trail along after her. Kakashi, who will be staying Underhill until his magic stops running amok, stays close to their sides as they walk further into the festivities roiling through the clear night, eyes sharp and vigilant. Smart, since he still smells human enough that the more foolish revelers might be tempted to do something _unwise_ , even though the _not-human_ smell on him is dangerous enough to make anyone with a functioning brain think twice about whatever they were thinking about. Crossing the Fair Lady, leader of the Wild Hunt and Queen of a Fae Court, was a death wish under normal circumstances but would be suicide for even dreaming of hurting her blood kin. The fae that is tied spread-eagle, screams muffled by a gag as his organs are burned then let heal in an unending cycle or torment, is a testament to the fact she will not be lenient to those who attempt to cross her.

 

They stop at the Lady’s dais, filled with her fluttering attendants, more kinds of Fae dressed in gossamer thin dresses in every color of the rainbow. It itches at the back of his mind, that these twigs titter and fawn and act like _prey_ , like things he should stalk and chase and run to ground and rip apart, but he ignores the urge. These were the Fair Lady’s handmaidens after all, always more than meets the eye. Now that he was looking for it, he can parse out the hidden signs - the 47 point rank of antlers one Fae woman wears like a stole, the bear teeth and claws that encircle another’s throat and arm, the delicate arch of pommels rising up from the bodice of yet another cleverly hidden as boning. All Huntresses who followed their captain when she ascended the throne. The Fair Lady waves her hand lazily, hidden from the view of those not in her inner most circle, and they leave en masse. Structured to look as though there was a unity of mind with the Lady, to strike fear and respect into the other Fae. It’s a pointed reminder that Underhill is rife with struggle, still fresh with upheaval. Sakumo is glad for the Huntresses wearing facades along with their innocuous masks.

 

The Fair Lady stands in front of  the massive tangle of antlers and claws and pelts, the one that passes for her throne, the one she built with her own two hands still covered in the blood of the last Fair Lady,  and a hush falls over the assembled crowd. The Lady sings then, something High Court that jangles across Sakumo’s nerves and has Kakashi curling and uncurling his hands futilely, shifting the features visible above his lower face mask closer and closer to inhuman. It’s a rush that leaves them both ansty for _something_ Sakumo has no name for and cannot even begin to describe. She finally finishes, the assembly churning with potential energy, wild and unchecked and buzzing with life, “Be merry, all!” A hearty cheer, then hidden musicians strike up a hauntingly unearthly song. There’s a resurgence of movement, too many activities to catalogue. The Lady sits, but they remain standing. Courtesies are everything here, even when the ruling power is partial to you. A single attendant, Chiyotsuru, comes back with a tray of impossibly delicate treats, and the Rule blazes bright in Sakumo’s mind  even though it’s a moot point: _eat not the food of Faerie or ‘til the end of days will you be trapped_.

 

“Lady, by your leave. I would like to look around the various festivities.” Orochimaru murmurs quietly, his lips barely moving. If this is a ploy to get closer to that spectacular display of water magic, Sakumo can’t find it in his heart to disapprove - it is a particularly fantastic demonstration, and he idly wonders what he will need to trade in order to learn it.

 

“Of course. But please, it is the start of Spring; dance once for me before you sate your curiosity and drag the Wolfling with you. Stars and winds know it will be difficult to find you again once you go.” Still she reaches out and presses her bare wrists to Sakumo’s neck, then Orochimaru’s. Once a wolf, always a wolf.

 

Kakashi materializes, trailing a small pack of puppies lead by Pakkun, and silently demands a hug. Sakumo has never, and never will, deny his son requests that are so simple to fulfill, making sure to run his cheek over Kakashi’s head to satiate the quiet, insistent instinct for pack to smell like pack. “Be safe, little hunter.” Sakumo takes the steady return of his gaze as agreement, and lets Kakashi return to herding his roiling pack of happy puppies along. Kakashi pauses and repeats the process with Orochimaru, then stalks off into the crowd. Only once he can no longer even see a glimpse of the silver-grey hair that tops his son, Sakumo proffers his arm and leads Orochimaru out into the faerie ring marking out the dance floor.

 

The steps aren’t complex, innate knowledge of how to keep rhythm and how to follow a pattern aiding them both in stepping into the complex whirling of clothes - for a given value of fabric - and limbs - for a given value of flesh - and merging seamlessly. Time loses its meaning in the cacophony of movement and sound, washed with magic of every type. Orochimaru, vivider than the others dancing with his velvet indigo robes and snake domino, his wolf claw earrings and fang and scale choker, is distracted trying to catalogue every sight and smell and sound, and it is so tempting to close the gap until Sakumo can nose along the hinge of Orochimaru’s jaw and breathe against his cheek, “So, Beautiful, what brings you here?” He feels rather than sees the full blown smile that crinkles Orochimaru’s face, but it’s still worth it to feel the release of the tension in the set of his shoulders.

 

They whirl apart to duck in and around lines and partners as the steps call for it; then it is too easy to ask, “Aren’t you a little afraid, Handsome?” It takes a moment to see the flash of understanding in Orochimaru’s eyes, “A mortal in a faerie ring, in the Underhill? At the mercy of strange Fae? Isn’t that more or less the most dangerous situation you can ever find yourself in?” He’s teasing, he makes sure he’s teasing because Sakumo knows precisely how dangerous this man is and that’s without having Manda with him, but he’s also curious. Every rule in Orochimaru drilled into his head when he first moved into town made sure to mention the overwhelming disadvantage humans had in the realms of the Fae, and this was certainly at least three of the listed situations to be sure to _not_ find oneself in.

 

“Oh, Hunter, but I am the consort of a powerful Fae; I dance with my Fae Hunter under the auspices of their Fair Lady,  and I know my Fae in the very matrix of my soul. He is a good man, a honorable Fae, and he once gave me his word to do his best to protect me. Can you think of a safer place to be, my sweet?” Orochimaru presses in closer, far closer than any propriety in Underhill or the human world would find seemly. “Is it overkill his mother and child both adore me?”

 

Sakumo is doing his best to not flush and failing spectacularly, thankful for the wolf mask covering everything but his mouth. “Godsdammit, Orochimaru.” the mood is completely ruined, but he’s still feeling overwhelmed. It’s not fair.

 

“Turnabout is fair play,” and that is the smirk of the completely unrepentant. “Now, let’s go challenge those fire -and-ice duos to a match to learn how they’re dual wielding two intrinsically different elements at the same time.” A simple enough request, especially given that Sakumo had noticed them too, and had wanted to observe them and the wonderfully novel shape of those lightning crystals - earth and lightning! Together! - plus the possibility of what looked like a massive black wolf slipping around the shadows. Maybe they’d like to join Fuzzy for a spell?

 

Orochimaru intertwines their fingers again, and Sakumo knows that the surround Fae take notice and mark it. It is one thing to know that the Snake-Souled Orochimaru has put a claim on the Hunter Sakumo, that it is returned in full and then some, but it is another to see it and know that two individuals who could stand against the oldest of monarchs have chosen each other, smell of a single unit. It’s strange to realize, that all these creatures of myth and legend find him scary, find him the thing not to be crossed, but just as much realizing that the hard and fast human rules for Underhill don’t apply, it is simply a paradigm shift. He follows Orochimaru deeper into Underhill; Sakumo is good at riding changes in situation out.

**Author's Note:**

> Worldbuilding Notes:
> 
> -It's not fully covered here, but Manifesting is like puberty. For Adults Manifesting tends to go all in one go, because their magic pool is as large as it's supposed to naturally be and can handle, so there's just physical changes that have to be dealt with. For kids, like Kakashi, they may get one trait - here wolf teeth at the sharpest, the kind Sakumo feels his teeth sharpen into here - but the rest, like eyesight and hearing being stronger than human will kick in later. What also kicks in later is magic pool expansion - that happens with normal human puberty like normal. Kakashi is getting a natural knack for magic from his Fae heritage plus magic expansion along with the joys of puberty. While humans will have magic control problems anyways during puberty (see YRMo(H) where it's implied Tobirama and Izuna had a magical mishap in the school yard), it's usually not at the scale or level of destruction Sakumo or Kakashi are facing. Thus, off to Grandma's land Kakashi goes.   
> \- Unraveling is techincally a Lost Art in the Human world. It takes decades to master, and boils down to being able to undo a magic that has been unleashed. There's a reason it's a Lost Art, with the last remaining vestige of it being captured in very ancient seals only one or two very old Uzumaki even know how to draw or power. Basically, once those persons are dead, the art will be completely Lost in the Human world. /shrug
> 
> Come scream with me on [ tumblr](http://modernart2012.tumblr.com)!


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